“Charlatan?”
“And crook,” added Nick.
“Don’t be saucy, Mr. Carter, not to a lady,” said the frowning jade. “You’ll meet with just what I predicted for you—failure.”
“I’ll risk that.”
“And you’re in a very fair way to it,” added Vic, with a sinister nod, as she terminated her malicious scrutiny and turned to Amos Badger.
The latter had drawn aside with his wife and Conley, and the three stood talking in subdued tones, apparently with no interest in the recent amusement of their confederate.
“Well, what do you say?” demanded Vic, as she approached them. “We’ve got him, all right. Now, what’s to be done with him?”
“That’s what we are discussing,” growled Conley, who had much of the ruffian in him. “I say ’twas a mistake not to have let him croak, if he’d have been accommodating enough to do so.”
“Bah!” muttered Claudia. “Men with as hard heads as his don’t die so easily.”
“To my way of thinking,” added Conley, “it’s safest for us to put out his light at once, and be done with it.”